


SCATTER

by Mikkeneko



Series: Caleb's Copendium of Kisses [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Public Display of Affection, mage armor is super sexy, matchmaker Nott, minor Beau
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-02-29 17:23:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18782755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikkeneko/pseuds/Mikkeneko
Summary: Molly's never denied his competency kink. When he finds himself cornered in a fight turning sour and his boyfriend comes in to save the day with a well placed spell -- how could he help himself?





	SCATTER

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first in a short series of fics I'm doing, sort of as a break from my longer plottier fics. This one was written for Mollymauk, 'Scatter.'

Steel clashes and scrapes against iron as Molly blocks the blow, deflecting his opponent's blade off to the side with a heave of his arms. Sweat drips steadily down his back: the abandoned prison they're in has long since flooded and the air is heavy and close with humidity. It's dank and green, close and claustrophobic. The only light is that of smoky orange torches sputtering against the walls and Caleb's dancing lights, and Molly really, truly does not want to die here.

He may not be given a choice in the matter, he thinks as he dodges backwards out of the reach of another swipe, this one some kind of barb-tipped javelin. He taunted their enemies earlier trying to pull their attention off the squishier member of the party, and it worked a little too well: there are four of them on him now, and as fast as he can dip duck dodge he can't evade them all.

"I could use a little help here!" he yells, backing up as far as he can until his back hits a wall and that's it, he's pinned. Molly blocks a swing, dodges a second, can't do anything about the next two that come whistling in. Blood spurts from new gashes along his left arm, his right side and he can't do anything about it, but he's already bleeding too much, too freely. If he goes down now, and these bastards all take swings at him before the others can reach him --

In the gap between his opponents' shoulders he sees Caleb step out onto the catwalk, momentarily free of any other melee, his expression dark and focused. As Molly watches the wizard reaches into one of his many pockets and pulls out a handful of  _ something  _  dark and crumbly, sifts it between his fingers to trickle onto the floor as he chants something. With all the other noise in the room and the distance between them it ought to be an inaudible mumble, but instead the words that reach his ears are crisp and precise, each one hard and heavy enough to make his eardrums flinch.

Caleb reaches the end of his incantation and flings his hand forward; the black cinders he'd been crumbling in his hand  _ zing _  away from his hands in all directions with unexpected, energetic speed.  _ "Verstreuen!" _  Caleb barks out, and Molly's enemies --

Vanish.

With a  _ crack _  of displaced air they disappear, one by one,  _ crack crackcrackcrack  _ leaving nothing but empty space in their wake. Molly staggers a bit into the unexpected free space in front of him, gaping in disbelief as he stares wildly around the underground cavern.

From this angle he can see one of the old, half-collapsed cells of the prison, and on the other side of the bars he sees Mister Barb-tipped Spear abruptly reappear, looking astonished and dismayed by his translocation. The enemy fighter drops his spear, reaches forward to grab and rattle the bars as he yells his dismay, but Molly has no attention to spare for him or any of his unfortunate fellows. His eyes are all for Caleb.

Caleb who is standing with his hand still outstretched, fingers smoking slightly, eyes still shimmering with the ethereal light of the arcane. Molly staggers forward onto the catwalk, the metal reverberating under his feet as he does, to clutch at Caleb's arms.  _ "Thank _  you," he wheezes. "Thought I was done for, then you come in like a goddamned angel of vengeance!"

Caleb blinks as his eyes return to normal, that incredible vivid blue, and then he blushes as he smiles. "Well, I could not very well stand by and let you be done for," he mumbles. "It was a small thing --"

"Caleb, that was  _ clutch."  _ It's his usual self-deprecating bullshit and Molly is not here for it. "Holy fuck, you have no idea how much it turns me on when you're being all sexy and competent with magic!"

The old Caleb might have blushed more, might have shrunk back and withdrawn at the praise. But the Caleb he knows, the Caleb he's spent months on the road coaxing out of his shell, just cocks his head and smirks in a way that is  _ devastatingly _  sexy. "Why do you think I do it?" he says.

And, well. Molly  _ can't _  not kiss him then.

It's hot and close and tastes just faintly of iron and ozone, and Molly doesn't want to put his swords down but he doesn't want to stop holding Caleb either so he ends up in a sort of hands-free clutch with his arms around Caleb's shoulders. Caleb doesn't have anything in  _ his _ hands right now so they're free to roam down Molly's sides and up his back, wincing away from the gashes where Molly took hits earlier. 

Honestly Molly is flying so high right now he can hardly even feel them. Caleb's hands slide under the edge of his shirt and he moans into the wizard's mouth, knees threatening to buckle at the feeling of Caleb's hands on his skin. There's just that faint fizzle on his fingertips, residual heat or magic or maybe just knowing it's Caleb.

A shout from further down the corridor wrenches his attention forward again, and Molly opens his eyes and looks over Caleb's shoulder just in time to see the fighter Caleb imprisoned ratchet back his arm and hurl his javelin through the bars towards them. There's just enough time for Molly to wrench them both sideways, letting the spear clatter past them and rebound off the wall, taking a chip off the stone.

Caleb stares at the notched spear for a moment, eyes wide. Molly looks at the now-disarmed enemy, then back to Caleb. "You know what other spell is sexy?" he suggests. "It's mage armor. Mage armor is **super** sexy."

Caleb rolls his eyes, huffing with annoyance as he detangles himself from Molly and takes a step backwards. But he makes a gesture and a faint shimmer springs up over his body, an effect Molly has seen often enough to recognize, and he finds himself grinning again. "Marvelous," he breathes, and leans in for another kiss...

A terrible racket comes from down the hallway. Beau comes backwards into view, followed by one of the fighters that Caleb teleported away, pressing the attack. She knocks him back with a flurry of blows, then looks over her shoulder at them and glares. "Hey, assholes!" she yells. "Stop flirting and fight!"

"No, no, keep going!" Nott calls from her hiding place up in the pipes in the ceiling above. "Tell him how sexy Shield is, Molly!"

Caleb sighs, and Molly has to laugh -- at Beau's disgruntlement, Nott's matchmaking, Caleb's annoyed affection for them both. At the absurdity of the situation, flirting and making out in the middle of a bloody battle in a flooded hellhole. Six months ago Molly could never have imagined himself here, and now? He wouldn't change it for the world.

"Later," he promises Caleb with a last swift peck on the lips. Caleb smiles, one hand drifting up to capture the kiss against his lips, and the look in his eyes burns into Molly's brain even as he turns back to the fight.

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

>  **Scatter**  
>  Casting time: 1 Action  
> Range: 30 feet  
> Components: V  
> Duration: Instantaneous  
> The air quivers around up to five creatures of your choice that you can see within range. An unwilling creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw to resist this spell. You teleport each affected target to an unoccupied space that you can see within 120 feet of you. That space must be on the ground or on a floor.
> 
> Scatter doesn't actually have a material or somatic component, but I'm so enamored of Liam O'Brien's acting out of the somatic components of spells that I decided to give it some.


End file.
